Also, glad that FFOS is on a higher spec phone, should deter some of the detractors.
People often scoff/don't understand when I explain it to them, but I run FFOS (I have the Flame) because I (want to) support Mozilla and everything they stand for.
Also, Firefox, the browser, is really firing on all cylinders these days. The developer edition is awesome, syncing is awesome and works across all devices (I use Firefox on phone, tablet, and Linux and Windows). And, most importantly, I trust Mozilla more than any other browser provider. I store a lot of stuff with Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Flickr, but I'm not entirely happy about it (to varying degrees).
And, of course, it's anecdotal.
But, I see that Microsoft does provide a download for Linux and FreeBSD and even Solaris! Oh, wait, it's a redirect to Moonlight. I didn't think it worked with Netflix, but if I find myself with some free time I might play with it.
This is different than a sandbox. A sandbox limits what the plugin is capable of doing to the system. The whole point of sandboxing flash is that it has had numerous security holes.
0. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/what-is-plugin-containe...
Wish them luck though. Congrats on the release.
Care to elaborate why hopeless? I Use Flame as my second device and while I totally agree that there's a lot of work needed before FxOS "feels" as polished as Android or iOS, I don't feel like it is hopeless.
Remember Android 2.0? What a piece of.. ehm.. unpolished mobile OS it was? FxOS 2.2 is significantly more useful than any 1.x.
p.s. If you also have any basic webdev skills, you can fix UX yourself. I miss charging time notification on lockscreen and I started working on it yesterday [1] - fairly easy to add. We just need webdevs to help us hack :)
[1] https://github.com/zbraniecki/gaia/commit/a7829b7f4750e294b3...
I don't just remember Android 2.0: I have an HTC Desire phone running it (it can't upgrade any further due to its limited hard drive space).
First impressions are awful: The Flame feels slow and extremely unpolished (the stretching is ridiculous, no progress bars in the system updates and other places, hard-to-find text-only buttons, missing fade-out effects...). The screenshot gesture/keybind that triggers almost every time I unlock the phone. Confusing wording all over the place. Performance issues everywhere, even on the lock screen and camera, etc etc.
These are just some the ones I gathered in the first couple of hours. I stopped writing them down... and I stopped using the phone altogether after two days. I wanted, I really wanted to contribute to it but the amount of basic UX issues made me feel like there is little QA/UX being done at all.
My FOSS time is limited. I have a job in FOSS, and I do LXQt work in my off time (in addition to personal project). Being put in front of Firefox OS made me feel like what you guys needed were more full-time UX devs on it, not an assorted basket of contributions. This is why it felt very hopeless to me.
This was a couple of months ago. I have to admit I did not update since, the phone just went unused. Upgrading it is on my TODO some time in the next few months, unless you tell me things radically improved since.
There was a recently an upgrade to 2.0, and I have to say that it is pretty amazing. Definitely a lot better than 1.3.
They went a drastically different way with the home screen (I say drastic, but they basically went from horizontal scroll to vertical scroll, but that's a pretty drastic UX change), and I think the UI is much better and much more consistent.
I used android G1 (same as your dream). Do you claim it was smoother? Faster? More polished?
Users experiencing these types of issues in 2014, when the alternative is silky smooth phones, is negative word of mouth. The expectations around phones have changed and it isn't 2006. I wish you luck.
In LXQt, as desktop environment devs, just because the software we create is alpha, users don't expect things to look and feel like windows 95. They expect something modern right off the bat, and we should integrate our own previous experiences on all the other systems that did what we're doing. I think because of that, we have an advantage.. and so should Firefox OS.
Back to the UX: Can random people on the net really fix that? I got the impression that while technical fixes would be fine to submit, UX decisions are mostly 'done' and hard to impossible to argue about as a lay person. Would you disagree?
For sure it may not be easy to get changes, but that's the same for paid contributors (I still have bad memories of keyboard changes I fought against and could not get in).
(I have some issues with the keyboard as well, but that's "old" now)
My email is dale@arandomurl.com, I am trying to improve the feedback flow between users and development of the OS, if you could email me about particular issues or how you would fine your feedback best sent / replied to I would really appreciate it
Thanks Dale
I have tried 512MB Alcatel Fire E in store and the keyboard felt laggy. I was happy for Mozilla that they finally got their phones in brick-and-mortar stores here in Russia. It was launched here in mid-Novemver, (finally, yay!), for 3990 rubles ~ $65; though the only ones I see in stores are of unlisted coffee brown color for some reason [1]. I am not sure I can actually recommend one, though, other that a geek's toy, because, even though carrier subsidy is all but unknown here, there already are cheap carrier-branded Android phones that are better value for the price. Or some non-branded ones, even: there is a choice of Android phones with similar hardware from reputable companies like Samsung, now!
But of course, that's good news for Mozilla and I'm thinking of maybe importing this phone for me from Japan. Previously I was pinning for Alcatel Fire S, when (if?!) it will eventually be released (come on, it was announced in February!) http://www.gsmarena.com/alcatel_fire_s-6140.php
[1] Megafon | Alcatel One Touch Fire E 6015X Chocolate http://spb.shop.megafon.ru/mobile/87125.html
Symbian web widgets, WebOS, ChromeOS, Chrome Packaged Apps, ...
We have already seen it multiple times already, it always fails to impress.
I will hopefully be able to contribute back to Rust a bit once I'm a bit more skilled with it.
I would think a reaction like "oh Mozilla wants to me to sign some petition about net neutrality? they're that weird internet company that's all open or whatever, right?" is waaaay better than something like "Mozilla? what's that?".
Also, I think what they're doing IS impressive. the platform they're attempting to build is in stark contrast to everything else that exists out there (Android, iOS, Blackberry) -- and it couldn't be simpler or more open (well, without sacrificing quality). They are the truest-to-open-source platform out there, I think that's impressive